


All it Takes

by ab2fsycho



Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Desremi is NOT CANON, F/M, I ABSOLVE ALL SHIPS OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO BE CANON, No Borospaladin, and feelings are realized, emmy scares grosky, nothing is canon, the start of a new relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-25 01:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2603342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab2fsycho/pseuds/ab2fsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They never knew their potential until it was almost lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All it Takes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



It would take him hours to make him lose his breath in a workout, but it only took her a split second to scare every bit of air from his lungs. The young woman had always been hard on him, always been quick to point out some of his errors in front of colleagues. But she’d also always been quick to defend him, even against people she might have known personally. She’d been determined to help him that day. She’d refused to take no for an answer, no matter how many times he told her he was more than capable of handling things on his own.

It would have taken Inspector Clamp Grosky hours, but it had taken Miss Emmy Altava a split second. He’d been facing down a member of the group formerly known as Targent. The man had had a gun, and his finger had been shaking against the trigger. Grosky could have handled it. He could have easily handled it. One bullet could not stop Grosky, but it could destroy Emmy. Just as he’d been prepared to disarm the Targent man, Emmy had shouted, “Inspector!” and shoved him out of the way.

The gun had gone off and Grosky had remembered what it was like to feel out of breath.

The Targent man dropped his gun as Emmy hit the ground, going completely limp. The Targent man started sputtering, blubbering out words and phrases that Grosky couldn’t hear over the sound of his own heartbeat. He was certain Emmy was dead. He was certain there wasn’t a single breath left in her body.

The Targent man tried to run, but Grosky hardly twitched his hand and delivered a chop to the man’s head that may very well have cracked his skull. As far as Grosky was concerned, he didn’t give a damn. No longer distracted by the fiend, Grosky dropped to his knees beside Emmy’s body. He hesitated to reach out to touch her, afraid to confirm his suspicions. He wasn’t aware his chest was heaving until he heard the air passing rapidly through his open mouth. He closed his gaping mouth, hoping to quell the heaving. It didn’t work. The air escaped through his nose as well. It hurt. Everything hurt, and the sensation was so foreign to him that he had a hard time identifying what it was he was feeling. Finally resting a hand on Emmy’s slim yet strong arm, he breathed out, “Emmy?” The word came out more like a plea than a question, to which she did not reply. Not immediately. For a hardened inspector for the law, he was astounded that she was capable of doing this to him.

As salt water threatened to escape his eyes, a familiar voice struck him like a hammer. “Suck it up. Someone might think you’ve gone soft.”

Grosky’s proverbial ears pricked forward as he lifted his head. “Emmy?” he asked a little louder as the woman began stirring under his palm.

She raised her forearm to reveal the superficial wound the bullet had left. “Just a scratch, you fool,” she uttered as she winked at him. Before she could protest, he had picked her up and set her back on her feet like a mannequin. “Hey!” she cried out as he lifted her arms and inspected just about every part of her torso to ensure that the scratch was, in fact, her only injury. “Stop it!” she declared as he went so far as to move her hair to check her back. “One scratch! That’s all.”

He let out a heavy sigh mixed with a joyful sound, placing both hands on her shoulders and pulling her in for a tight hug that lifted her off the ground. The first words from his mouth were, “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Would probably be a relief for you, honestly,” she joked, her voice constricted by how fiercely he was hugging her.

He shook his head, catching a whiff of her sweet-smelling hair as he did so. “No,” was all he could say before pulling back just enough to place his lips on hers.

When he realized what he’d done, he let go of her swiftly and took a few steps back. Her eyes were wide with shock, and he was still foolishly within her range should she decide he deserved a kick for that. Considering what she’d just done for him, he’d take several kicks. 

Instead of attempting to damage him in any sort of way, however, she wound up running off. Though he could have easily overtaken her, he did not follow. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed, though, as his crest fell just as quickly as it had risen.



Few could simultaneously irritate and entertain her as he did. So when he had done something as rash as kiss her after thinking she was dead mere seconds before, she had to wonder exactly what she was supposed to do. He could have any number of women. Well, he could have one at least. The fact that his wife had divorced him the year before bared repeating, really, but it somehow managed to add to her inability to decide what to do. She’d been told she could have anyone she wanted as well. She’d received plenty of propositions, especially during her time with the professor. However, she had never considered continuing her life with someone at her side. She’d always assumed she’d be alone due to her criminal relations. 

How could she even approach him on this, though? It took her two days to fully accept what had happened, and three more to draw the conclusion that she needed to talk to him. Two days later, here she stood in the precinct trying to piece together what it was she wanted to say. Was it really worth coming to see him at work? Was she really right in confronting him? Shouldn’t she just drop it? Had she even bothered thinking about how she felt about him?

Emmy Altava knew somehow she had plenty of options, but few were as simultaneously entertaining and irritating as Clamp Grosky. This was why she found herself standing behind him in the hallway of the precinct instead of gathering information of her own. “Inspector?” She was more timid than typical. Even she could tell.

He froze but for a moment, then turned around slowly. When he was finally facing her, he looked just as unsure as she felt. “Miss Altava?” His voice wasn’t as booming as it usually was. She wondered if the other cops noticed how strange this was, that two of the most outspoken individuals in London were suddenly at a loss for words.

Looking down momentarily, she cleared her throat. When she looked back up, she asked, “May I speak to you in private?”

His brow furrowed before he nodded. He then led her to the office that he had never once used in his career. When they stepped inside, she was stricken by how empty it was. Empty shelves, empty desk, empty walls. It was desolate. He truly never visited here, did he?

In her distraction, she actually forgot to start up the conversation. He leapt on the silence with, “I should apologize.”

“What?” she said, turning to him.

“For what I did. It was both unsolicited and inappropriate at the—”

“No, wait!” she cut him off. He stopped talking, his hands wringing in ways she didn’t think possible. She took a deep breath, trying to find the words to start with. “I . . . also wanted to apologize. For running.” Their eyes met, and she could tell he was just as nervous broaching this subject as she was. She didn’t know if that was comforting or unnerving, given how little Inspector Grosky actually feared. “I haven’t exactly been in many relationships in my life, let alone recently. Even so, I generally don’t know how to react when shown affection. First, at least. Usually I’m the one doing the advancing.”

Grosky smirked and folded his arms. “I understand that.”

She smiled in return. “I also don’t want you to feel like you did anything . . . wrong, per se. I was surprised by it, but . . . I was also not offended.”

“Well . . . that’s reassuring.” They both looked down then. A few moments of silence passed before he asked, “May I ask you something?”

“Sure,” she said, looking back up.

“Would you,” he looked up, almost as if reconsidering asking, “be opposed . . . to dating me?”

Emmy was surprised by the question, but instead of running this time she smiled. “I would like that.” He smiled in return. His eyes lit up, and she actually felt like a kid again. Not the kid that she had been, running the streets and getting in trouble, but the kid who actually might have some hope of enjoying the hand they’d been dealt in life.

**Author's Note:**

> This was gonna be longer, but my brain would take it no further. I apologize and hope you appreciate what little I did.


End file.
